


Riptide

by Jetamors



Category: Point Break (1991)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 18:59:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5467526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jetamors/pseuds/Jetamors
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was getting in too deep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Riptide

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bottomfeeder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bottomfeeder/gifts).



They were sitting around the house, smoking weed and waiting for Roach to come so they could start sketching out the last heist of the year. Bodhi had cracked open a beer when Roach finally came in, his face pale.

"Listen, Bodhi, I got some bad news about Tyler's new boyfriend."

"Hey, calm down, man," Bodhi said. He gestured to a nearby chair. "Take a load off. You want a drag?"

"Yeah, sure, man." He took a pull from the spliff, but instead of sitting down, he started pacing the room. "You know my cousin Julie, the one who works over at the FBI office? Always talks your ear off? Well I was late because she wouldn't fucking shut up about the new guy over there. He's the new agent out of Quantico, and he's kind of famous, you might know him. Johnny Utah."

"Johnny Fucking Utah." Bodhi took another gulp of beer. "Well, shit."

"Did she say anything else about him?" Grommet asked. "Anything useful?"

"Yeah." Roach looked murderous. "She says he's more handsome in person."

"So he's a Fed." Nathaniel asked. "What now? We bug out?"

"No way," Bodhi said. "I've seen him surf. He doesn't understand the waves yet, but he will. And when he understands the waves, he'll understand us."

Nathaniel looked at him sharply. "Are you serious?"

Grommet started cackling, high and hysterical. "You think we can turn a fucking Fed? What the fuck, Bodhi?"

"No, it'll work," Bodhi insisted. "He's not just here for a robbery bust. There's something he wants from us, something primal. And I'm gonna give it to him."

***

"Heeey, Utah!" Bodhi was sucking the lime out of a girl's mouth. Johnny had sort of expected him to be the center of attention, but it wasn't like that; it was more like he blended into the party perfectly. He pulled away from her, taking a shot. His eyes glinted dangerously. "You want to try it?"

"I taught him that one," Tyler cut in. She was looking between him and Bodhi with an odd expression on her face—worry, but not the kind of worry he would have expected from a woman talking to her ex-boyfriend and her current boyfriend. Something more like concern? For him?

"You want to try it?" Bodhi asked, his smile roguish.

Johnny blinked, thinking for a moment that it was a serious suggestion. But then—no, of course it was a joke. He laughed it off, but Bodhi's smile widened, and he had a feeling that the surfer knew exactly what had been going through his head.

"Listen, just be careful with Bodhi," Tyler said to him later. "I don't mean this in, like, a jealous way, but Bodhi likes to take people up and then drop them just as fast. It's fun, but you should know what you're in for."

"Jealous?" Johnny asked. But hen the others were coming in, and somehow they were going _night surfing_ and it was completely insane, but also amazing. He could hear Bodhi and Tyler whooping and shouting at him over the waves.

One by one, everyone drifted to shore, until it was just Johnny and Bodhi, not surfing now, but just drifting on the waves.

"Not much like football, is it?" Bodhi asked.

"Well, you don't slap as many asses."

Bodhi chuckled. "So are you starting to understand it? What the waves are all about?"

"What does it feel like to you?"

Bodhi was quiet for a while, looking out at the water. Then: "It's about freedom, man. So many people go along in their dull, boring lives, every day just like the one before it. Nothing exciting, nothing dangerous, nothing real. This is what's real."

"Some people would call that selfish," Johnny said.

He could barely see Bodhi's face illuminated in the moonlight, but he could feel that intent stare directed toward him. "Listen, you've seen both sides of it. You go to work in your stuffy little office job and your suit every day, pushing papers around, and then you come out at night and ride the waves with us. Which part do you really get up in the morning for?"

Johnny looked at the light reflecting off the water. He felt the waves lapping against his legs. He looked up at the stars above them, and back toward the fire on the beach. He looked to Bodhi, sitting perfectly balanced on his board, his eyes bright.

"I would do this my whole life, if I could," he said.

"And you can, man. You just need the courage to walk out of your own cage." Bodhi dropped down on his board and started paddling toward shore. "You coming?"

"Yeah," Johnny called back. "I'm coming."

Tyler was gone already by the time he came back to shore, and pretty soon Johnny was saying his goodbyes as well. He drove home alone in his car. And for what? Back to his little house, and his lonely bed, so he could get up tomorrow and arrest some crooks, get a commendation on his record? Get promoted, then start the whole cycle over so he could get promoted again?

Johnny slammed the dashboard with the palm of his hand in frustration. He was getting in too deep.

***

Eighteen hours later and he was sitting at home, cursing whatever intuition had told him the Nazis were behind the robberies. He was back to square zero, with no leads and no suspects.

He thought for a moment about Bodhi, riding the waves with confidence. There were no jobs in his world, no promotions. Only challenges and the will to face them.

As if his thoughts had summoned him, there was a knock on the door. Bodhi, of course. Lean and blond and, at the moment, everything Johnny wasn't.

"Sorry man, I can't go out today," Johnny muttered.

"Bad day at the office, huh?" Bodhi asked, grinning.

"Bodhi, when was the last time you were even in an office?" Johnny asked. Bodhi didn't stop smiling, and finally he stood aside to let him in. "Come on, I'll tell you all about it."

He'd been planning to start on some of the whiskey in the top cabinet. Instead, he pulled out two beers from the six-pack in the fridge. There was still almost no furniture in his place, just the bed and a few chairs. He wasn't exactly surprised when Bodhi decided to lounge on the bed.

"So, we had a client," Johnny said, after taking a few swallows. "Real big case, and I was in charge of it. And I totally fucked it up. I thought I could—deliver something, but it turned out that it wasn't what I thought it was." He looked over at Bodhi, whose eyes were half-closed. "Do you even care about this?"

"Sure," Bodhi said.

"But it's just part of my fake life, right? I should just quit all this dumb bullshit and go surfing with you."

Bodhi patted the bed next to him; after a moment Johnny sat down there in a huff. Bodhi draped a companionable arm around his shoulders.

"Listen, I do think this is all dumb bullshit, and I do think you should just drop out and go surfing. It just gets me that you see the solution is right there, but you won't take it."

"Yeah, whatever," Johnny said. He was closer to Bodhi than he'd ever been before. The guy smelled like salt and sweat, and something else that was probably surfboard wax. He wondered what he smelled like: cologne and aftershave? Shitty coffee and quiet desperation?

Bodhi started rubbing comforting circles on his back. "So, you know yin and yang? It's like, there's male and female energy. But, like, you can't just have one, you need both. You can't limit yourself to one."

It sounded like total nonsensical babbling to Johnny. But then Bodhi started moving his hand lower, and he got the idea. "So you think I got too much female energy, huh?" He let himself kiss Bodhi's neck. "Need some more male energy to balance it out."

"Wasn't sure if you were into that kind of thing."

"Bodhi, I played football," Johnny said. He reached down, grabbed Bodhi's ass. "Let me show you how we 'balanced our energy' in college."

***

The next morning, he watched Bodhi and the others goofing around on the waves, and suddenly the thought came to him: _I am such an idiot_. As sloppy as they might seem to be, he'd spent a lot of time lately surfing and watching others surf, and every movement they made was fast and efficient. _Four surfers, working as a team for years, they can practically read each others' minds_. He was so stupid.

"What's the matter?" Tyler asked.

"It—it's nothing," he replied, knowing that she knew he was lying. "I've got to get to work."

Sitting in the office didn’t exactly make things clearer. Once, he would have gone to Pappas right away, but after the botched raid and everything else, it seemed more complicated than it once had. Bodhi's words kept going through his mind: _Which part do you get up in the morning for?_ He growled and stood up.

"Where you going, Utah?" someone yelled at him as he went out the door. Might have been his boss.

"Out," he yelled back without looking. It didn't matter. None of this mattered. He had to talk to Bodhi.

When he went by Bodhi's place, the guys were all boxing their stuff up. He hung back, using his surveillance training. Instinct told him he wanted to talk to Bodhi alone. He didn't have to wait long: in just half an hour, Bodhi got into his own car, by himself. He drove off, and Johnny followed him. He dropped some things off at a storage unit first, and then drove to a bank. Jackpot. Johnny parked and went in behind him.

He let his hand on Bodhi's shoulder be his only warning. "So is this is the last bank you'll hit this year?"

His training had taught him to expect fear in this sort of situation, or at least nervousness, but somehow Johnny wasn't surprised when Bodhi turned to him, just as calm as he always was.

"I sure am," he said. "Do you want to help?"


End file.
